USENET tape announcement #1 (what's on the thing?)

[uwvax!astroatc!gtaylor@seismo.CSS.GOV (Mr. Sharkey....white courtesy phone, please)]

Okay. Here it is: the official teaser track listing for  the
one  and  only  network  compilation  tape  -- "NETwork: the
second USENET compilation." As always, these little encapsu-
lated descriptions reflect only my own twisted state of mind
and  tendency  to  wordfoolery.  All  of  these   recordings
*really*  sound  like  Borodin's  "Polivetzian  Dance Number
three" as heard on late-night television,  okay?  Doublegood.
Now, onward. The tracks here are listed in the order they'll
spool by your ears.  I'm assuming that none of  you  weenies
will substitute the FF button for your beloved "n" key:

SIDE ONE:

Waara.wbst@Xerox.COM "Hunger Artist"

The song has the same name as the band.  Like  Kafka,  these
boys  tell  stories  to  keep  the  dark out. They tell them
louder and faster, though.  Several minutes of bracing blis-
tering music, the 'core of which is pure.

esquire!roger "Ekokobunki"

In a foreign urban zone, Roger Reid walks the  city  streets
and  listens  to the theme from the hit boxing/comedy series
"Aki no Yoru" coming from an open  second  story  window.  A
little  old  man  in  a  tattered  plastic  raincoat  shouts
encouragement from below.

Wessling.pa@Xerox.COM "Wonderland"

Uh oh. I knew that sooner or later I was going to get  some-
thing  that aspired to beauty here. Brains too. The proposi-
tion is simple: the narrator (Faith No More-Suzanna and  her
co-conspirator  Ina) recounts one of those Zen questions "Do
you want to be a picture?".  The  circumstances  are  decep-
tively  simple  and  resonant--just like the chiming guitars
that    echo    and    fill    the    space    the    voices
subdivide.

well!warren "The Moving Window Sings-Part 2"

The well-sculpted  head of Formal rigor is raised from this
motley array of visages. Living out on the fault line, Warren
sees the balanced order imposed by the listening audience to
precisely  mirror the potentialitie s of the trembling band
of stretched earth beneath his feet.   Like the slumbering
earth's clock-wound tension, the landscape above (the part
that hits your ears) reveals its secrets slowly as one lives
with it.

boutin@mit.athena.edu "Old Man"

Hey hey it's *cover* time here at the AV corrall.  Paul  was
probably  dreaming  of  the  day he'd hit puberty when what-
his-name penned this little ditty. Paul's stripped  off  the
the  adenoidal  wail  and the wimpy guitar, taken a cue from
"Hey Hey My My" and mixed it up with the Cult (who he claims
are  stealing  his  sound). Leave it to the Young to come up
with these revisionist trips.

well!curtin "Chinese New Year"

Welcome to the global village once again. When we're talking
China  here, we really mean Industrial Policy. The sounds of
that parade sample and sliced  and  diced  and  chopped  and
channeled into the marching band at Punch Press High School.

dadla!jrb "Night in Wichita"

Remember what Binkley did *last* time out to Charley Parker?
Yep.  He's  back with something that features that same Vax-
based artificial intelligence jammer turned loose on another
Bird  chart.  Y'know  that argument we always get into about
how drum machines don't sound human.  This one doesn't,  but
in  a good way. The amphetaminized ghost of Gene Krupa plays
on.

net1.UCSD.EDU!valerie "Only Yesterday"

What can we say for the street cred of a tune which uses the
plangent phrase "It's painful" for a hook? There are several
Valerie voices here, askeing and answering their  own  ques-
tions. But is it Mope-Rock, you ask. NoSirree. Bouncy rhythm
patterns buoying up that somber synth bearing  the  voice(s)
away.  Another person with pipes -- quite possibly a refugee
from the confining costumes of acoustic folk. Is there  life
beyond "Walk me out in the Morning Dew?"

janzen@ant.dec.com "Old Songs #2"

How marvelously the familiar  becomes  strange!  Tom  clones
himself with the aid of a digital delay, picks up that wimpy
old recorder, and proceeds to sketch out a  little  internal
monologue  in real time. The argument ranges from dissention
to the hurled epithet to the gentlemanly agreement.  Specta-
tors welcome.

ihlpa!rwn "Wire Rap"

Remember that time you fell asleep with  Cabaret  Voltaire's
"Sensoria"  on the auto-reverse deck and then woke up during
the Japanese Monster Movie festival and sleepily wondered if
Jane  Fonda  had made some sort of new exercise Video? Well,
this collaged funkloop workout  should  be  a  good  backing
track for *some* sort of exercise or other.....

ddz%ccrma-f4@sail.stanford.edu "Second Half, Second Piece"

This man wrote the Jam Factory, and  balances  his  software
savvy with a little serious lesson in how to *use* the tool.
Here he teams up with a quena (the Andean  flute)  for  some
really  extraordinary  stuff. If this doesn't give knee-jerk
technophobes a run for their money, nothing will.

ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU!rosen "Imbal Ska"

Here's a man who knows his charts, knows his timbres,  actu-
ally seems to know how to structure a piece of music for the
occasional change of tonal center, and all that  other  com-
petent  stuff.  Heck, he even knows enough gamelan to figure
out how to mix Javanese hockets with that scratchy ska beat.
I  bet  you'd  think this has all the earmarks of a crushing
bore, right? What's  it  doing  here?  Easy...providing  yet
another gentle corrective example to our easy way with bigo-
try and prejudice. There is research material here.

garth!kissell "Lassie at War"

Some things just improve with age. Long ago, Kevin  sent  me
this  for  the  *first*  net  tape and then dropped from net
view. He resurfaced after I'd put the first one out. Feeling
bad  for  passing  him over, I pulled this one out to put in
here. Any worries I might have nurtured about this piece  of
mangled  ruin  of tortured guitars, Poltervoice and dripping
drumbox sounding ah...dated are put to flight. We hope  that
Kevin  Ventures  out of the basement more these days to work
on his tan.  

SIDE TWO:

mips!dce  "Spare the Rod"

The tape I got simply reads 'David Elliot-Redneck'.  However
true this may be, there's nothing in that moniker that would
explain how he taught his  steel  guitar  to  sound  like  a
buzzsaw,olearned  to  be  funky,  or  decided to write about
child abuse.  Must be chemicals in that water.

astroatc!gtaylor "the Contour of Return"

A little climate report in one of those  7-tone  scales  the
Indonesians  use. They don't bang on empty creamed corn cans
or invent fretless bass parts though. More predictable cryp-
toethnodrone from whats-his-name with nary a gong in sight.

hofmann@nrl-css.arpa "That Boy"

I've been told that theoretical physics is nothing more than
looking  at  the  debris  of some amazing collisions. If so,
give this one to the lab. A straight shot  of  lounge  drum-
ming,  aphorism,  and  a collage of madness that swims up at
you like a bone-white fish out of a very deep pit.

hpcid!ranjit "Sparkle Tree"

Aliases, aliases. Isn't the reinvention of the self  wonder-
ful?  Here  we have The Voltage Controlled Coalition at work
on a piece that will recall many of your  favorite  European
technophiles,  and  a few Ammuric'n ones, too. Gently arched
sections flow gracefully one into another to create an image
of  harmony  in its analog/digital form. This sounds nothing
like the piece it precedes or follows, and throws them  into
sharp relief (as they do to it).

stolaf!robertsl "Calico Scallop"

Since our last meeting, Mr. Roberts has mastered  multitrack
home  recording  and  listened  to some prepared piano work.
This sprightly bit of romp extrapolates his moody piano gank
in triplicate. The housecats all dance to this when it comes
on.

potomac!jsl "Frank was a Physicist"

And Labovitz belongs on the periodic table banging  his  cup
against  the  table top with the rest of him. Chiming acous-
tics, death-to-snares drumming, sea  monster  guitar  leads,
and a tale of woe in the scientific community.

dkalin@cc5.bbn.com.arpa "The Hazards of Crystal Growing"

Those of you who remember the  Clavinet,  raise  your  hand.
Billy Preston fans, sit down. Ditto you with the Stevie 'do.
This is more like a sort of baroque improv  by  someone  who
grew  up liking Kerry Minnear's stuff with Gentle Giant. Dan
performs live without a net.

esc-bb!brad "Deaf Tracks"

Brad gave us a dose of Japanese Court music last  time  out.
This  time  he's  gone  electronic  on  us, but retained his
interest in structure and construction and that  ability  to
study  how  things  looked when they're set slowly and care-
fully against a blank background. Ikebana for the ears.

orchid!sahayman "Black & White & Gold/Waterloo, Waterloo/The
Band Played On/O Canada"

If I tell you, you won't believe me. This is a brass band --
the  only  marching  brass on this whole ensemble. Likewise,
who else here plays music guaranteed to delight fans of  the
Commonwealth and Monty Python (secret joke. You'll get it, I
guarantee) with one fell swoop? Oh yes.  The  *Band*  has  a
USENET  id  (I'll  post  it  later).   Our current "I didn't
expect this at all" prize winner and new champeen.

andrew.cmu.edu!ckk "Memorial Day Barbeque"

You folks know about Eugene Chadbourne, right?  Now  suppose
that  Eugene  played the string bass, had a taste for multi-
phonics and bowing at the node points and had one  of  those
little  timer watches and a couple of minutes to address the
masses. Partita it ain't.

ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu!page "The Cliff"

TVD-plus riff through  a  few  hot  minutes  of  your  usual
drums/wires/synth  raveup.  It's *not* usual?  Oh yeah, that
*guitar*/bass/drums. Ah...the dbs meet Allen  Ravenstein  at
the beach party? Another kind of Venture.

sdcc19!ewa "Temptation"

Little Eric Anderson inverts a strophe  of  the  PaterNoster
and lists his favorite versions of the category suggested by
the title. He forgot Ooblick, though. This appears  to  have
been recorded while on Sudafed.

So that's it. 20-odd people or so (not odd people you twits).
A nearby posting to this one has full ordering information and
all that other good stuff. So check it out.

-- 
A silence so rare/more than I can stand/sweeps like a flood
through life's flesh and blood/and steals away/with my heart.
Gregory Taylor:[...ihnp4!nicmad OR ...uwvax]!astroatc!gtaylor